Beautification blamed for Mosgiel flooding

Mosgiel street improvements that have blocked the former intersection of Lanark St (right, behind bushes) and Gordon Rd (pictured) are again being blamed for flooding problems in the main street. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

Attempts to make Mosgiel's main street more beautiful are
again being blamed for sending flash flooding washing into
Gordon Rd shops.

About a dozen shops were affected by a sudden downpour of
25mm of rain on Saturday afternoon, overwhelming Mosgiel's
limited stormwater system and sending floodwater into main
street shops.

Dunedin City Council acting water and waste services manager
Laura McElhone said yesterday previous work to improve the
appearance of Gordon Rd was partly to blame for the
situation.

Mosgiel's stormwater infrastructure was known to be
inadequate, with pipes in some areas only able to cope with a
one-in-two-year rainfall event.

That meant it did not take much rainfall for flooding to
begin accumulating on roads, she said.

In the past, the layout of Gordon Rd - the main street - had
allowed water to run off into side streets, where it could
sit until stormwater pipes caught up and it drained away, she
said.

"What it's not supposed to do is go into shops."

However, beautification work undertaken by the council about
a decade ago, and modified more recently, had disrupted those
flow paths, she said.

That included closing Glasgow and Lanark Sts - where they
intersected Gordon Rd - to create pocket parks.

The result was that water now accumulated on the main street
until it spilled over into shops, Ms McElhone said.

The council's transportation staff would be talking to staff
from the New Zealand Transport Agency - responsible for
Gordon Rd - about help with minor improvements to try to
prevent a recurrence.

That could include modifying or reversing some of the
beautification work undertaken along the street, to make sure
water flows were not impeded, she said.

The response to Saturday's flooding had been labelled
"pathetic" by Mosgiel Taieri Community Board member Martin
Dillon, who also questioned why the Fire Service did not
start pumping out the affected shops.

Council staff defended the response of their contractors at
the time, saying there was nothing they could have done, as
did Lookout Point Station Officer Wayne Stephenson, who said
there was nowhere for firefighters to pump the water.

However, it was not the first time the street improvements
had been blamed for exacerbating flooding problems.

In 2008, community board chairman Barry Barbour called for
the reopening of Glasgow and Lanark Sts to alleviate flooding
problems.

Both were closed in 2003 to create "pocket parks", but Gordon
Rd shops had been flooded or threatened with inundation at
least twice since, it was reported at the time.

The council's then-roading manager, Mike Costelloe, said the
suggestion would be considered, but the streets had remained
closed off.

Council roading engineer Peter Standring said "bubble-up
tanks" had been added since then, which took water from
Gordon Rd and siphoned it into side streets.

Those had generally worked well in other downpours, but had
been overwhelmed on Saturday, he said.

"They would be working, but not hard enough. We probably need
more facility there."

Council transportation operations manager Graeme Hamilton
said yesterday he would meet NZTA staff later in the month,
and more details would be confirmed after that.

However, Ms McElhone said the long-term solution would come
as the council gradually replaced small stormwater pipes with
larger ones, able to accommodate at least a one-in-10-year
event, across Mosgiel.

Because of the cost involved, that work would be done
gradually as pipes came up for renewal, she said.

Ten years of DCC inactivity has caused this flooding. This
has happened in the past, you said so yourself, yet your
inactivity over this decade has caused this flood and the DCC
should be held accountable through its lack of planning and
support to the hard working businesses in Mosgiel's main
street.

Your comment 'We are talking decades rather than years' shows
the contempt you have for these businesses as you are
prepared to let their shops flood everytime there is a
significant downpour for the next few decades. I'd like
to see you in Mosgiel sweeping the water out of the
shops everytime they flood.

The DCC are looking at blaming everyone else, NZTA, the
beautification, transportation bubble up mudtanks (a joke)
except your 1 in 2 year pipe system. That is a joke! That is
the problem, accept responsibility for it, it is your
substandard asset, so plan to fix it and do it.

It has already been a decade of nothing, don't let this
continue for two more.